MILAN — Chiara Ferragni is being tried in a Milan court and prosecutors on Tuesday asked for the influencer and entrepreneur to be sentenced to 20 months in jail, according to media reports.
This is the latest development in the so-called “Pandoro Gate” case that has dogged Ferragni for two years.
In December 2023, Italy’s competition authority, AGCM, revealed it was fining Ferragni more than 1 million euros after finding that she allegedly misled consumers by teaming with Italian confectionery maker Balocco in 2022 on the Pink Christmas charity project.
As per AGCM, consumers were tricked into thinking that by buying a Ferragni-branded Christmas cake, the alternative to panettone called pandoro, they were contributing to a charity for a children’s hospital. According to the regulator, Balocco made a 50,000-euro payment to the hospital months before launching the Ferragni pandoro and that sales of the product, which retailed at double its regular price, had no effect on the donation. In addition, AGCM revealed that Ferragni allegedly received 1 million euros for the initiative, but that she made no personal donation to the hospital.
Ferragni is also being tried for a similar initiative involving Easter eggs with Dolci Preziosi.
Exiting the courtroom after the closed-door hearing on Tuesday, Ferragni said she felt “confident.” Next week, on Dec. 5, it will be her lawyer’s turn to speak and ask for an acquittal, according to media reports. Legal observers believe it is unlikely Ferragni would actually spend a day behind bars. But so far she has paid out 3.4 million euros in fines and donations to charities, including the Turin-based pediatric hospital Regina Margherita, originally the recipient of the charity initiative. Balocco has also been fined by AGCM.
“My error, in good faith, was to link, via communications, a commercial activity with a charity one,” Ferragni said in 2023 on Instagram. As of Tuesday, Ferragni had 17.3 million followers on IG.
The Chiara Ferragni brand was launched in 2013 as a footwear label and gradually introduced T-shirts and sweatshirts. For fall 2021, Ferragni introduced the first fall apparel collection produced by Swinger International, which also owns Genny and has long been manufacturing the Versace Jeans Couture line. As she dealt with her legal issues and the repercussion from the scandal, Ferragni has been less active in the industry, and she has been restructuring her brand. In April, she revealed she had taken control of Fenice Srl, the company controlling and operating her eponymous fashion and lifestyle brand.
Ferragni long ago distanced herself from the role of influencer, piling up modeling contracts over the years with the likes of Pantene, hairstyling products company GHD, Lancôme, Pomellato, Bulgari, Hublot, Oreo and Nespresso, and taking on the role in 2017 of president and chief executive officer of TBS, the company that manages her The Blonde Salad blog and activities.
Her own first makeup line was launched in November 2021.
